Necklace
by bloomsburry
Summary: Everyday, every single moment as she touches the necklace that hangs on her neck,it reminds her of Itachi.And Sakura still hopes that she could have returned the dept she owed him. But she hadn’t really expected that her wish was going to become a reality


**Disclaimer:** I don't own Naruto….

**_Read this first!!!! For you to understand the story!!!_**

**First Installment:** Birthday Gone Wrong

**Second Installment:** Payback

**Third Installment:** Brotherhood

**_Second Saga_**

**First Installment:_ "Necklace",_**_ Sequel to Brotherhood_

**Summary: **Everyday, every single moment as she touches the necklace that hangs on her neck, it reminds her of Itachi. And without a day that past by, Sakura had hope that she could return the dept she owed him. But she hadn't really expected that her wish was going to become a reality.

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"**_Necklace" _**

**_Itachi/Sakura_**

**_Rated T_**

**_Adventure/ Romance_**

**_Second saga_**

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Sakura read and reread the scroll again, trying to gauge if this was some kind of practical joke written by someone who knows her secret; a secret that she had kept to herself, even though withholding the truth from the Hokage was going against the code of the Anbu Ops and her principles as a kunoichi.

She was betraying her Village for a dead man who saved her life twice and it wasn't worth risking her hide if she tries to follow the instruction written on the scroll she was holding.

The scroll arrived via a messenger hawk; a black, magnificent bird with intent yellow eyes and has the attitude of a squawking crow as it nearly pecked her hand when she tried to reach for the case it was carrying behind it's back. It took Sakura sometime to subdue the agitated bird and was quietly disconcerted when it remained there in her open window as if waiting for payment in exchange for its service.

Glancing around for something to give to the bird, Sakura caught sight of her rice ball, still whole and lying on her half-consumed breakfast in the kitchen table. She took a small portion and gave it to the bird. The bird gladly accepted his payment and started pecking at the rice.

It was minutes later that Sakura watched the hawk took flight into the bright morning sky and leaving her behind to skim over the contents of the scroll in her hands. Her eyes moved over the childish scribble written in the scroll, barely acknowledging the fact that her breakfast was getting cold while she continue to speculate over the person who had sent the message to her; eliminating and sorting through possible suspects that knew her secret.

Since she hadn't told anyone that she had met Uchiha Itachi in person and lives to tell the tale, or rather lie to everyone about the encounter. So that leaves someone from the outside had known that she had taken Itachi's necklace by accident. But why would they want it back? And why have they sprayed such unusual perfume on the scroll? It distinctly smells like it had come from the fish market.

The only way she could find out who sent this was to go to the place where she had been instructed to meet him or her. However, Sakura didn't know how to explain to the Hokage of her unexpected departure from the Village, especially after she just comes out from the recovery room yesterday. It had been two weeks since the Akatsuki attacked their Village and two weeks later that everyone discovered the death of one Uchiha Itachi.

Without knowing it, Sakura's hand reached for the necklace that hangs around her neck; the same necklace that Itachi had given her as keeps sake. He had told her to keep it until he comes back for it. But now he's dead and Sakura felt a little bit sad that she hasn't had the opportunity to give it back to him. And she wondered if this feeling of sadness got to do with the twinges of conscience every time she stared at the necklace.

Sadness and guilt was now becoming familiar to her every time she thought of the Uchiha, or restlessness when she remembered the day he had rescued her. It always made her wish that he was still alive so that she could return the gesture even if the image of saving Uchiha Itachi was hilarious. Sakura would still want to do something for him in someway. But even that generous intention couldn't stop her from keeping the truth from everyone.

Many times she had wondered why she had kept his heroic actions from the Hokage and from the Village. Maybe because they still see him as a psychotic criminal. Even Sakura still believed it. She just started to have doubts since he had saved her twice and he had told her about Uchiha Madara's existence and his near attempt at claiming Konoha for himself.

If she told all of this to the Village and the Hokage, she was sure that no one would believe her. They might even think that she was having some sordid relationship with him from behind their backs and then calling her a traitor after wards for consorting with the enemy if they have a clear testimony or proof of their liason, especially when she was still carrying the necklace Itachi had handed her.

Of course, all of this was due to her imaginative mind that became extremely productive during her days confined in the hospital with nothing to do and no one to talk since everyone was busy rebuilding Konoha.

The villagers were making reconstruction with a pace that Sakura could describe as desperate and with vengeance. They had lost hundreds of their men on the battle field and civilians who didn't do anything but stand on the sidelines. Yet they were still killed by those ruthless missing-nins who disrupted the peace within their Village. Now, Konoha was seeking for retribution.

They weren't going to risk losing another hundred if the Akatsuki attacked them again when they were still at their weakest. She was curious as to why they haven't tried yet and Sakura got the bad feeling in her stomach that it was something to do with Uchiha Sasuke and his vast army of followers and formerly prisoners of Orochimaru.

Rumors had spread fast of Orochimaru's unexpected demise in the hands of her former love and team mate. Even now, Sakura could still feel her heart wrenching at the thought of her childhood love. She shook the feeling of incredible loss that always accompanied the image of Sasuke in her mind. It would be her own undoing if she continues to mourn and weep for the total betrayal of her former love to their Village.

As a member of the Anbu Ops, Sakura was divulged with the latest reports of Sasuke's movements. He had joined the Akatsuki after following the death of his brother and what was worst was the fact that Sasuke was seen with a red head woman with him. The bitter taste of love gone sour was still fresh in her tongue when she had listened to her Anbu team mates report the latest developments from their enemies. She couldn't imagine Sasuke with any woman. She had always dream of having him for herself. But that was a childish dream made by a naive little girl. She was already eighteen, old enough to marry and have children but even that couldn't stop Sakura from having a little hope for her future.

She needed to erase him from her mind. She couldn't let her emotions rule her judgment. She has to have a steady head over her shoulder when she faces him in the future. Jeopardizing her status as an elite kunoichi just because of a former flame was proof of her weakness and she couldn't do that.

To Sakura, Uchiha Sasuke was as good as dead. Just like Sasuke's older brother, Uchiha Itachi.

At the name, Sakura recalled the scroll in her hand. Staring at it for a moment, Sakura finally decided what to do. She threw the scroll carelessly on the kitchen table where her breakfast had gone cold for the last minutes. She maneuvered easily around her kitchenette to enter her bedroom while her eyes gleamed with purpose and determination.

Sakura was going to find out who had sent the letter to her.....andd their intention was to her. And in particular, why had they instructed to bring Itachi's necklace with her.

On her absence, a wind came in from her open window, blowing the scroll from the table. It landed on floor with a soft rustle, sliding open to reveal the contents within.

It read:

**_Haruno Sakura,_**

_Don't reply to this message!_

_I have something you want. Meet me at the shark's cove_

_on the east coast of the Kirigakure. Don't look_

_for me once you're there. I will be the one to approach you._

_Don't let anyone know of this meeting. If you tell anyone, then_

_there's no finding out what you have lost._

**_F. S_**

**_P.S_**_ Look, just don't tell anyone okay?_

_This is important. So you better _

_come without your friends._

_If I do find out that you_

_brought SOMEONE _

_with you, then I'll_

_just disappear._

_Bring Uchiha Itachi's necklace with you by the way. _

_YOU will need it._

**------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------**

"Ahhhh….you must be Mrs. Haruno?"

Sakura whirled around just in time to see a middle age women smiling warmly at her with two teens trailing not far behind. They were wearing the same blue kimonos like the rest of the staff there, the stiff silk kimono were too voluminous and too fancy for the occasion. But as what she had noticed upon entering the prestigious building of the shark's cove, nothing was too simple and too dull in there. All was extremely and richly built into complex details and precision, even the floor was carefully made by an intricate mosaic with a picture of shark swimming underwater.

Sakura deduced that the architect must have an eye for beauty and to her consternation, must have a fondness for sharks and the color blue.

"Yes," Sakura answered, smiling. "But it's _Ms._ Haruno."

The woman frowned slightly at the correction but her smile didn't disappear as she came to stand in front of her along with her little entourage that Sakura gather must be her assistant maids from their expression of utmost servitude.

"I'm sorry," the woman apologized, bowing. "But I must have misunderstood my master telling me to receive a guest by the name of _Mrs_. Haruno Sakura."

"I am her," Sakura assured, the tension that she had felt when she entered the building easing a bit at the woman's open congeniality. "But I'm not married yet."

The woman's frown deepened as she regarded her with increasing suspicion.

"But this Haruno Sakura has a husband," She said. Sakura was startled that she stared blankly at the woman.

"A husband?"

"Yes," The woman nodded.

"But that can't be," Sakura said, her brows furrowed in thought. If she was expecting an enemy in this place after leaving her Village, Sakura was now beginning to feel confused to have someone mistaken her as a married woman. This proves her suspicion that something was really wrong in this whole picture, and she wasn't talking about the shark mosaic gracing the entire lounge area.

"As far as I know, I'm the only Haruno Sakura in my Village and this one doesn't have a husband."

"I'm sorry," the woman bowed again. "But if you're not the one we've been waiting for, then may we ask you to leave the building? We're not to allow someone loitering in the premises."

Sakura's eyes narrowed at the woman's sudden change of tone. At first the woman had been overly friendly when she had arrived in the building and now when she found out that she was not the one they were looking for, they turned cool and civil.

"Miss, may we----?"

"You don't need to tell me twice." She said, her eyes turning into slits as she glared at the woman. "I'm leaving. This building stinks like fish. Who would want to loiter here anyway?"

Coldly and deliberately, Sakura pivoted on her feet, not waiting for the woman to say something in return. She marched away without deigning a glance at the woman who watch her leave or even lingering to look at her surroundings. Her eyes were staring straight ahead that she didn't stopped immediately as a very tall man suddenly appears to block her path.

"I'm sorry," Sakura said, halting when the man didn't move out of the way.

"But could you move?" she asked through gritted teeth, still angry for being treated like a low life by some highhanded woman.

When the man still didn't move out of her way, Sakura tried to side step him. He followed.

Sakura grew angry.

"So," a rasping voice came from above her head and Sakura snapped her head at the source of the sound and what she saw there made her react instinctively. Two kunais were drawn out in an instant while she leaped a good distance away from the grinning shark man.

"So you're Haruno Sakura?" the blue skinned and pointed tooth man asked while Sakura's brows knit as she regarded the man wearing what look like to be a business suit. "I've been expecting you,"

Emerald eyes flashed with caution as she scrutinized him. Her eyes wandering on the shine on his polished black shoes and towards the suit case he was carrying on his left hand; his blue skin contrasted to the white cuffs of his undershirt while Sakura stared at him mutely.

She was frozen in shock as the image before her slowly registered in her mind, although her thoughts didn't show on her face as she stood there in a defensive position.

Was she actually seeing a shark-man wearing a business suit? His face looks like Hoshigake Kisame but Sakura knew that it wasn't him. Looking at the friendly smile pasted on the man's face, Sakura knew that Kisame didn't smile that way and he sure hell wasn't into suits! This man couldn't possibly be the blood thirsty missing-nin who nearly drowned her over two weeks ago. And Kisame doesn't have the time to used perfume on him! Like this man must have had because she could smell the sea breeze from him; all crisp and balmy.

"I noticed that you've been admiring my floor earlier," the man remarked, cocking a nonexistent eyebrow towards the floor. "Quite fascinating, isn't it?"

If Sakura wasn't as tensed at the moment, she would have detected the note of laughter in his voice but since her hands were clenched tightly around the kunai she was holding and her body was coiled for an attack that she missed all of this.

"I'm sorry that my staff has treated you unwell just now," The man bowed to her, glancing at someone from behind Sakura's shoulder and she immediately tensed, expecting to be attacked from behind. When none of that happen, she quickly looked over her shoulder to the woman who had ordered her out. The woman was cowering as the shark man shot her a silencing glare, the maids beside her were fidgeting while their eyes betrayed their fear as the shark-man slice his gaze on them.

"You are all fired,"

The woman and the two girls hurriedly shuffled away but that didn't alleviate Sakura's rising tension as she noted that the people in the lounge were gaping and looking at her while the guards that were stationed at the entrance and at the columns leading to the rooms were poised at the ready as they noticed the threat she presented.

The shark man with the business suit flicked an errant hand towards them, immediately dismissing them to their jobs of guarding and standing at where they were stationed.

"Go back to your post!" He barked at them while the guards did what they were ordered. Though they cast wary eyes at the kunai Sakura was still gripping tautly in her hands while they went back to their position at the entrances.

The shark-man's eyes were on her again and Sakura tensed, her hands clasping the kunai in defense.

"Come with me," he said, his tone brusque and commanding while he abruptly turn and started walking towards the archway leading towards the rooms.

Sakura stared after him, deciding against whether to follow him or leave. Since she was already there so she couldn't possibly turn her back from what she had been set to do. Tsunade had allowed her to leave the Village while ordering her to return back five days hence. If she doesn't return by then, then something must have happen to her.

Sakura didn't tell her shishou where exactly she was going. She had only told her that she was going to see some distant relative living in the Kirigakure, and since Tsunade had never doubted her, Sakura had been relieved that the Hokage easily let her go with a few warnings that she was too travel incognito. Since Tsunade believed that being her apprentice and an Anbu Ops captain, it would be risky for Sakura to travel in normal style and especially when she was alone. Tsunade had reasoned that Sakura would be unscrupulously targeted by their enemies.

So during her two days of travel, Sakura had hidden behind different sets of disguises. She did not stay in an inn for long where she had eaten and used the restroom or the bathroom before leaving half an hour later. Sakura slept in the forest or in rough terrains on her way here, and her choice of camping had always been far away from civilization.

She avoided going to major cities and only dropping by on small civilian towns where she bought the supplies that she needed in her travel; the reason why she hadn't met any mishaps yet, not even when the guards on the entrance of the Kiri borders asked her for the passport that would allow her entrance to their Country. Thankfully, Tsunade had provided her a passport after explaining that she didn't have one.

It had been an easy passage for her but finding the shark's cove had been difficult. Sakura had found herself lost several times but after a asking a couple strolling near the sea. They immediately pointed out where it was and Sakura located the rich establishment in an instant as she saw the blue shark emblazoned in front of the large archway in front of pretty tropical landscapes. If she wasn't mistaken, it was some kind of a private resort intended for powerful and rich men from both the shinobi and the civilian world.

She had even caught a glimpsed of a familiar, greedy daimyo languishing on one of those stripes looking bed under an umbrella while the glare of the sun kept a steady beat over his robust body that was awfully turning red.

She couldn't actually believe that there was such a place in Kirigakure. This wasn't the first time that she had been near a beach but this was her first time to see an establishment built near the sea. The sea was at the back of the huge resort and Sakura had discovered it in her hours of being lost. Half naked men and women in what look like to be undergarments were walking and strutting on the sandy beach or strolling over the huge expanse of a beautiful maze garden in front of the cove with all the tropical plants cloistered and cut to please the eyes.

Sakura had stared in shock when she had seen scaly looking men and women pass her by but the people there seem not to mind. It must be the norm in there to walk nearly naked and with weird looking men and women that resembled that of a sea creatures.

After a couple of hours of getting lost and familiarizing the place, Sakura had gotten used to seeing every oddity around the place. Even endured the sight of naked men trying to flirt with her or even worst a man that resembled a sea urchin trying to poke her with his pointed hands.

At last, when Sakura had found the main entrance to the reception area, she was more than pleased to see that the people there were normal looking and prefer to wear decent clothes than to gallivanted themselves in indecent clothes like the people outside were doing. Even more of a surprise was that the inside of the establishment was set in a conservative and traditional style just like in her Villlage, except there was a huge difference of the quality and quantity of the objects inside shark's cove.

All of it must have caused extravagantly and Sakura had run her eyes over the ornaments and the furniture on the reception area and the lounge with unabashed appreciation. However, at the moment, there was no time to appreciate anything as her eyes trailed after the shark's man retreating back, all things forgotten except to find out who had brought her here.

If her suspicions were correct, the shark man must be involved in this conspiracy to drive her insane with anxiety. She also have a niggling feeling the another shark man with a pair of beady black eyes and a malicious smile must have gotten to do with it too, since she noticed certain similarities between the shark man with the business suit and the man with billowing black cloak with red printed clouds.

Hoshigake Kisame and the man must be related to each other.

Sakura was sure that Kisame had sent that note to her. He was the only one who knew that Itachi and her have this unusual sort of mutual understanding. But why had he written F.S as his name? It couldn't be his initials since Hoshigake Kisame starts with H and K respectively.

Yet why had he addressed himself as F.S? Unless of course the shark man was an imbecile that he couldn't quite understand what an initial means so he had to make one for himself.

_That stupid, fish steak! _Sakura thought as she stashed her kunai back into her kunai pouch, warily eyeing the guards who eyed her in return as she decided to follow the man.

She caught the sight of his hulking form rounding a corner. She hurried after him, not really aware of how the entire area had change since she had entered that part of the building. She knew that this was for the guest who stays there but she hadn't actually thought that it was built more for comfort and relaxation rather than extravagance as the floor beneath her creaked with the weight of her steps. She distinctly become aware that it was made of wood while the walls on each side of her became scenic with landscapes and drawings of flowers and to her pleasure, cherry blossoms.

The hallway was big, house plants and pots decorated on each end as she passed by. Glancing at them perfunctorily while she looked curiously at the shoji doors which she guessed must lead to one of the rooms. Each time she passed one of doors, she noticed that each one have different style decorated on them. And as Sakura came to round another corner, she noticed that the shark man was standing in front of the shoji doors with a blood red cherry blossom tree and with a night background printed on it, but what Sakura found utterly disturbing was the drawing of a pair of eerie eyes peering through blood red blossoms at straight at her. Sakura stared at the eyes, the feeling of foreboding finally setting in as she lifted her eyes to the man standing near the close doors.

The shark man stared at her. Sakura was tensed, anticipation building up, twisting her stomach into knots as she waited for him to say or do something. The kunai in her kunai pouch were ready if he tried anything fishy.

"I think it would be best if we keep the introductions later," He stated while Sakura tried to calm her frayed nerves as she scrutinized him cautiously.

"I want you to meet someone," He abruptly said, moving.

Sakura tensed, her hands flying towards her kunai pouch but the man did not hurt her. Instead he slides the shoji doors open, revealing the interior of the room and its surprising size. Her eyes hadn't even started to lavish over the richness of the interior decorations when her appraisal fell on a silent man sitting on the white mantle placed on the floor.

The man was vaguely familiar. Sakura thought, frowning.

The shark man glanced at her while Sakura her face showed her inquiry as she remains standing outside the hallway, suspecting that this was a trap.

"Although, I think I don't need to introduce you both." The man commented while Sakura became confuse, slowly turning her attention back to the man sitting seiza style on the mantled floor, his head trained out from the an open shoji doors that clearly lead towards the koi pond and a japanese garden outside. The warm afternoon sun was casting a gentle glow over the enclosure while some of the brilliant lights dance scintilatingly over the pond where koi fishes were swimming. The lights that filtered through the bamboo trees and other exotic plants escaped into the small japanese porch and bouncing into the room where it cast a dim, romantic light in the furnitures, a single futon lying near a big upholstered couch.

The place look tranquil and relaxing but the sudden movement on the man at the center of the living room, made Sakura became aware that he wasn't as relax as would like them to believe.

"I think you know each other already," at his comment, Sakura looked at the shark man and was quite surprised to see him regarding the silent man with pity in his eyes.

"He's been unconscious for the past two weeks." He glanced at her and was disarmed to see him smile sadly at her. If he was Kisame, Sakura would have fainted dead away to even see him took pity on another human. "He just woke up yesterday afternoon."

"Since he has been unconscious for the past two weeks," Sakura said, getting frustrated as the man wouldn't clarify everything to her. "So I presume that he's not the one who sent me the letter?"

When Sakura spoke, the man sitting in the mantle made a distinct shift of his shoulder beneath the blue yukata he was wearing, his head cocking to one side as if trying to discern her voice. Oblivious to this except the shark man, Sakura asked the question that grate against her raw nerves.

"So if he's not the one, who sent the letter?"

"My brother," He said, turning to face her and was quite irritated as she suddenly tensed.

She needn't have to worry about him because he had never hurt anyone in his life, not even a fly. That's why he had chosen to become a business man and helping his country prospers with his chain of businesses across the country rather than become a shinobi like his brother, and looked where it got his brother.

At her nonplussed expression, he moved to enlighten her about his very unusual relationship with his blood thirsty brother.

"Hoshigake Kisame," He said and wasn't a little bit surprised to see her startled expression. Everyone would think that Hoshigake Kisame, the missing-nin, doesn't have a relative or even a brother.

"He was the one who sent the letter to you,"

Sakura just stared blankly at him while her mind tried to process the many possibilities of Kisame's reason of bringing her there. Certainly, it wasn't because he intended to send her into a relaxing vacation in some fancy resort. That would be _too_ generous even for him as she recall two weeks ago the image of one Hoshigake Kisame summoning his sharks while he nearly drowned her in one of his water jutsus.

"Yes, he's really my brother." The man said, mistaken her silence for disbelief.

Sakura's eyes snapped back to him, watching absentmindedly as he moved towards the door.

"I don't even know why I am even helping him." He said to her. "But since it doesn't hurt a fly by letting him stay here—" He gestured to the other man sitting on the mantle, who was obviously listening to their conversation rather intently. "Then there's no harm done."

Staring was the only thing Sakura could managed to do as she tried to digest everything he said to her, barely registering two things in her current state of mind. One, why was the shark man standing outside? And two, why in the hell was she supposed to do there in the first place? The only thing that was made clear to her was that Hoshigake Kisame has a brother and that brother was helping him about letting the silent man in the center of the room stay in this resort.

"I'll leave you to him,"

"What?" Sakura was startled out of her stupor as she watched with rising confusion and alarm as the man started to slide the shoji door close.

"Wait!"

The shark man paused. "Yes?"

Sakura fought back the urge to yell at him. She was getting angrier each minute at him for not trying to make things clearer and easier for her. She had been all nerves when she had arrived in this place and now it was close to breaking point when she realized that the man was leaving her without an explanation in this room with a silent man she didn't even know.

"Where are you going?" She asked him, her voice slightly high. "Aren't you going to explain everything to me why am I even here?"

"You don't need an explanation once you've see him." The man shrugged his tone impatient. He was also getting angry for being waylaid from his business meeting which he would have arrived punctually if he hadn't escorted her to this room.

He waved towards his other guest.

"Everything will be up to you. I don't need to dictate every damn thing you want to do in here. As far as I am to know, you are here for _him_. It seems my brother has developed a dry sense of humor in his years as an Akatsuki member. So you better enjoy your stay here while you can because my brother has paid quietly handsomely for _him_. While you on the other hand is a charity case----"

Sakura stiffened and glared at him.

"You have already cost me three members of my staff and now I'm going to reimburse for your stay---"

"I'll pay for mine!" She said indignantly. "And it wasn't me who fired three members of your staff! It was you! So don't blame me for----"

"Good," the shark man cut it, smiling. "Then I have no problem letting you remain here since you have already agreed to pay for your stay."

Sakura could do was seethe in anger while she realized that she had been duped into paying.

"It is settled then, you---"

She didn't let him finish while she slams the shoji doors in front of his face, glaring at him through the door. She could hear him laughing from the other side and would have gladly smashed his face with her fist if it hadn't for the sound that drew her attention.

She looked behind her and watched as the silent man slowly rose up to stand, his back still turn to her while something in Sakura stirred at the familiar way the man carried himself. Like a sleek, deadly panther, Sakura watched him uncoil from his seiza position to stand in his full height. The dark blue summer yukata showed the broad expanse of his strong back and shoulder, his black hair which brush carelessly at his collar gleamed like black silk while his face remain averted from her.

Like a silent observer, she watched him swept through the open shoji doors to stand outside the porch where he stared straight ahead without glancing back at her.

The silence between them was electric with full of unanswered questions, full of uncertain familiarity and of quite expectations. It hangs like a thick veil between them and Sakura felt undecided as she stood there watching. It seems that he was waiting for her to make the first move, take the first step into the unknown that was between them. Yet Sakura hesitated because she was unsure. She didn't know him but he looked familiar to her.

How long have they remained like that? Sakura couldn't fathom as she keep on hesitating. Keep on having doubts of the man who was an enigma yet familiar to her. As minutes tick by, Sakura's anxiety rose.

The only way that she could vanquish her fear of the unknown was plunge into it. She doesn't have a choice. That or leave. But she had gone far away from home just to come here, but to whom?

Who was he?

She wanted to know.

She desired to know.

She was dying to know.

Finally, Sakura made a decision and she called forth her inner resolve to face this seemingly nonthreatening threat.

Slowly, cautiously she began advancing towards him. There was a good distance that separated them so if she wanted to run, Sakura would be out of the door in a flash since she was nearest to the door.

But she didn't flee. Instead, her footfalls on the floorboards became brisk, determine and angry as it echoed hollowly on the dead silence of the room.

Her eyes glued to the figure which drew closer and closer while her eyes roved over his familiar back. Heart thumping wildly against her chest now, her footsteps didn't slow down as the distance between them shortened. She was fives paces behind the man when a current of wind blew into the room.

Sakura's heart slammed against her chest, her strides faltered while her emerald eyes flickered for a moment before steadying.

She stared.

A masculine hand reached out to grasp the sleek bangs that framed around the man's face while the wind whipped relentlessly, long fingers tangling with the black tresses while he waited for the wind to die down. The wind quieted down while Sakura watched those colored fingernails skimmed through the raven locks before his hand slowly drop down on his side, disappearing into the sleeve of his blue yukata while he gaze remain transfixed outside.

That's when Sakura knew who the man was. Quietly, Sakura moved towards him, her heart fluttering unusually against her chest while she joined his side.

Staring unseeingly at the gardens straight ahead, she said.

"I thought you were dead," her voice soft and bland, not a flicker of emotion. "Everyone did."

She heard than saw him glanced at her direction.

"Yet you are here,"

He didn't say anything. Sakura continued, not really surprised for his lack of response. She wasn't expecting a long explanation of why he had survive or even alive at that since she knew about his betrayal to the Akatsuki Organization. Yet he was still alive and well, with Kisame clearly hanging with him. So Sakura asume that Akatsuki wasn't ready to dispatch him yet, or maybe..... Madara must be plotting something else.

However, Sakura didn't ask any of these. She knew that he wouldn't respond to her questions if she asked. After all, they don't know each other that well to even trust there secrets. And Sakura wasn't keen in rectifying the problem. She would prefer that they treat each other as civil strangers than something close to friendly.

"I think," she began, a little unsure of how to proceed. "I think. It's good that you didn't die."

Again, the man beside her didn't say anything.

"I mean. It's great you're still alive because it means that I could return your necklace back to you," She said hurriedly before he could think differently by her statement earlier. Reaching for the lock on her neck, she took the necklace off. She gazed at it for a long moment before handing it to him, glancing at him but not daring to look at his face.

She realized belatedly why Kisame had asked her to bring the necklace with her. He must have known that Itachi's necklace was with her all this time and must have sent her here for that alone.

But Sakura was a little skeptical if that was his real purpose. Kisame wouldn't go to the lenghts of sending her here just to return Itachi's necklace. There must be something else altogether. Yet she didn't ask any of this to Itachi.

"Here's your necklace," She said, looking staring straight ahead, a little awkward by the whole deal.

"Take it,"

He didn't.

Sakura frowned and took a glance at his stoic profile. He was still looking ahead and not at her. As if he hadn't even heard her talking to him.

"Here," She pushed the necklace into his hand getting angry by his attitude. "There's your damn necklace. If this is what your partner an idea of a joke then he's----"

His hand clasped around the necklace and took it from her grasp without saying anything.

"Fine!" She snapped, nearly wanting to throttle him for ignoring her. Deceased missing-nin or not, she was ready to kick his sorry ass again. But Sakura refrained herself from doing that. She was in no mood to fight when she hadn't had a good night's sleep yesterday and a breakfast this morning. She was bound to have her sorry ass beat up if she tried to challenge the Uchiha for a full blown battle. And since, Itachi hadn't shown any signs that he might hurt her, Sakura didn't dare drew her weapons on him. Her acidic tongue was far safer doing him harm than antagonizing him with her expertise with her deadly weapons stashed inside her weapon pouch and knapsack.

"Fine!" She grumbled as she watched him caressing the necklace as if trying to familiarize it. "I don't even know----!"

"Wha---?"

She gasped as a hand suddenly shot out to capture her shirt, yanking her into a pair of arms that wrapped around her like bands of steel. She struggled.

"Let me go!!" She hissed at him, digging her nails into his chest and watched with morbid satisfaction as red welts started to appear from his blue yukata. "Let me go or---"

"Who are you?" She heard him asked and the question sparked such violent anger from her eyes that she has to close them.

"Who am I?" She asked, slowly opening her eyes to look at him. "Who am I? I'm Haruno Sakura, damn it! Don't you even know---"

She froze as she stared at him. Her jaw went slack as she noticed something different from Itachi's eyes. There was no light in them. Not a gleam of that intensity and absorption that she had seen when they had been fighting each other.

Yet now, they were gone.

Uchiha Itachi was blind.

"Oh my god!" She said in shock, staring with comical disbelief at Itachi's unseeing eyes which were fleeting over her face as if trying to carve her features into his brain.

"Oh my god," she repeated, her face losing of all color as she continued to stare at him, the hand that had been digging into his flesh slacken before going limp against his chest.

"Oh my---"

"If you keep on saying that again, I swear to you that there's not going to be a god once I try to cut you throat," Itachi break in icily, drawing her closer while Sakura continue to stare at him with her mouth half open. She was too shocked to even notice that she was in grave danger at Itachi's warning.

"Why?" Sakura asked, her eyes wondering over his impassive face. Even now, with his sight gone, he could still keep his cool and apathetic demeanor.

"Why am I going to cut your throat?" He asked, raising a brow.

"No," Sakura shook her head. "Why are you blind?"

"Why am I blind?" His brow rose even higher at her question, clearly surprising him while his blind eyes drilled into her. If Sakura was sure that he was blind, she could have sworn that he was staring at her.

"Yes,"

"It has been the faith of an Uchiha who massacred his clan," came his direct response.

Sakura flinched at the bland tone Itachi had said it, like he didn't give a damn at all that he had admitted his crimes to her, which were already known far and wide around the shinobi world.

"Now, it's my turn to ask you a question."

Sakura tried to shrink back as she noticed how Itachi's eyes had narrowed at her, his face turning ominous.

"Are you really Haruno Sakura?"

Sakura excused the question as nothing but born from paranoia. She understands that he had been here for more than week with no recollection of coming there in the first place. And with his sight gone, it must have been difficult for him to find his way around the room. At the size of the room, Sakura could just imagine the great missing-nin Uchiha Itachi groping his way around the room, trying to familiarize everything until he could picture out the exact order of furnitures in his mind. With his photographic memory, Sakura could guess Itachi had accomplished it without a hitch and just in one day! So she dismissed the questions as necessary for him since she would have done the same thing when she was in the same position as him.

"Yes,"

"Then let me asked you a few questions that only the real Haruno Sakura could answer." He did not say it like a request but a command!

If Itachi's tone wasn't deadly serious, she would have pointed out to him at the silliness of the whole thing. It hadn't even started and yet she was already beginning to think that this interrogation was pointless. But what would be really funny is that she could take advantage of this and have a litlle fun with him. It was really exhilirating to have the _Uchiha Itachi_ a little vulnerable without his sight. It would be really funny to have him under her little fingers.

"Ask away," She said, trying to hide the smile from her voice.

He must have guest that she was laughing at him because he was suddenly frowning at her in disapproval. Sakura bit back a giggle.

"Where did you find the necklace?"

"In my bag," She answered, rolling her eyes at him. Surely, if Itachi could see her doing that, she was good as dead. She bit her lip while her eyes crinkled in laughter.

"When did you suppose it found its way there?"

Sakura stifled a laugh at the outrageous question.

"Are you asking me if the necklace actually crawled up into my bag and hid there?" Sakura asked while trying not to laugh into face.

He glared while Sakura was already mentally chortling at him.

"Haruno-san," He said, his tone turning icy.

"Yes?" She responded with an added sweetness to her tone.

"Don't you think you're old enough to play games with me?" He deadpanned.

Instantly, Sakura's smile disappeared.

"Yes," She glowered ferociously at him and Sakura would have wish for the world to have him could see that.

"Then please stop this childishness and answer my questions."

Sakura clenched her jaw. Not really caring what he thought while deciding to just do as he says. She knew that he wouldn't stop at anything until he has his way. Blind or not, Uchiha Itachi was still obviously confident of his abilities. And Sakura was disgruntled because she also believes him to be as dangerous as he had been when he still have his eyesight.

"Good," He said, taking her silence as her answer. "Then answer my second question."

Sakura bristled and answered coolly, matching his unaffected tone. "I assumed that it must have fallen on my bag when you were tending to my head wound."

She saw him nod his head once.

"Then answer these two questions. What was I wearing when you last saw me? And what did I warn you before I left?"

"You were wearing an Anbu attire and you warned me about Madara that he was planning to lay siege on the Village while the majority of my fellow shinobis were off fighting in Amegakure."

Once again, he inclined his head while his face remained an expressionless mask.

"One last question,"

Sakura simmered, growling. "What is it?"

"What was my request to you?" He said, looking intently at her even though they both know that he couldn't see. "State the entire words without missing anything,"

"You said," She began, trying to remember what he said. "You said, "

"_I'll take it back after this war is over but on the meantime..... keep it with you."_

"You request was this: **'_I'll take it back after this war is over but on the meantime, keep it with you._**" She said hurriedly and coldly, crossing her arms in front of her when he finally released her.

Sakura looked at him, "and then you were gone."

Itachi inclined his head, his expression remain impassive.

"The war isn't over yet," She told him. She had meant it as informative rather than suggestive.

But Itachi thought differently.

"Are you trying to suggest that I gave my necklace back to you, Haruno-san?" Itachi asked tonelessly.

"Of course, not!" Sakura nearly shouted the words, surprise even at the thought to have the nerve of asking the necklace back that really belongs to him. "I already gave it to you, didn't I? Then why would I want it back?"

"Hn," was all his monotonous response while he continues to look at her or rather, training his head towards her voice.

"Are you done interrogating me?" She asked angrily. "Because I'm really getting---"

"Not yet," He broke in while Sakura sputtered.

"What do you mean not yet? Didn't I answer your questions correctly? What do you want to do now? Feel me up to see if I'm not…..."

The corners of Itachi's lifted.

"....fake? "

Sakura trailed off and could guess where his mind had wondered because her heart was suddenly beating fast against her chest.

"Oh no, you don't!!" She said in outrage, backing away while Itachi's lips thinned his face turning stoic. "I won't you let you touch me!"

"I'm not going to touch you somewhere inappropriate, Haruno-san," at his blunt, expressionless words, Sakura knew that he had decided to proceed with the touching and the feeling. She tried to make as good an escape while turning all feline on him.

"What do you mean you're not going to touch anything inappropriate? Of course that's your intention you big pervert! That's why you're warning me first before touching me!! I won't let--"

Sakura stopped talking as Itachi suddenly took hold of her face and was glaring at her rather menacingly. "Haruno-san, or if that's who you really are," He said in a low, dangerous tone that sent shivers down Sakura's spine. She didn't know if it was from fear or something else while his nearness did some strange things to her heart.

_It must be fear._ Sakura thought as she could hear her heart thumping loudly in her ears.

If someone walks in on them at moment, they would have assume that they were about to kiss since Itachi wasn't really aware of how close his face was to hers. It was still a foot apart but to Sakura, it was like a hairs breadth away.

She stopped breathing altogether.

"Let me to touch you,"

Sakura went scarlet at his words while her knees started shaking.

"I just want to make sure that you aren't here to eliminate me,"

"If I was an assassin who was sent here, wouldn't I be attempting to kill you by now?" Her questions came out breathless and Sakura shook her head to clear the fog that slowly creep into her mind.

She cleared her voice and tried not to sound as shaken as she was. "Since you're not dead, could you just think for one moment that I'm not an assassin?"

"It's not that easy," He replied, his expression not betraying any of his thoughts. "I'm not trained that way."

"Then there's not a chance that you wouldn't stop this?" Sakura looked up at him, searching his impassive face but already knowing his answer.

"No,"

She was silent as she gazed into his blind eyes. She knew that he couldn't see her now and she was glad as sympathy and remorse flickered in her eyes as she looked at him. She couldn't help it since she had always that that his eyes were far more beautiful than Uchiha Sasuke.

Her heart lurked and Sakura closed her eyes to banish the thought of Sasuke from her mind. It was no used to pine for him since he was already far from her reach.

Again, Sakura released a long sigh, not really caring when Itachi frowned at her repeated sighs as he waited for her response.

Gently, without alarming him, Sakura lifted her hands and laid them on top of Itachi's large ones that were cupping her face. Heat seeped into her from Itachi's warm hands while she closed her eyes and pretended that this wasn't actually happening to her.

"Okay," She whispered, savoring the feel of his palms on her face. "You may touch me….but under my guidance."

Since her eyes were closed, she missed the smile that fluttered across Itachi's mouth.

She guided his hands, letting him touch her forehead, her brows, and her eyelids where she could have sworn he had lingered to brush his fingertips against the curl of her long lashes and then he was touching her cheeks, making her forget about the incident as the tingles started.

It began on her toes and into her spine, and then she was feeling them where Itachi's fingertips had brushed. She could feel her cheeks burning, could feel his heat on her face, her neck, her chest and in her abdomen. Instantly becoming aware of how they have gotten close as Sakura guided his hands around her face. Letting him touch her jaw, her temple, her neck but never her nose or mouth where Sakura felt suddenly shy.

But when Itachi's right palm had accidentally brushed against her pointed nose, he had paused and stared, as if he could see it. Without opening her eyes, she had guided him and splayed his fingertips across her cheeks. Allowing him to slide a finger over the bridge of her nose where she had shivered and curled her toes as she became increasingly aware of him.

Then they had stopped. The air between them was thick with a different kind of tension.

But after the paused, Sakura had continued, becoming breathless each moment as his fingers draw closer to her lips. When it was almost there, she stopped to peer at him from beneath her lashes. His fingers were hovering above her lips when what she saw in his face brought a smile to her lips.

He must have felt the movement on her face because the look of total absorption in his face was gone while his fingers seek the source of the movement, immediately finding her smiling lips.

"Didn't I tell you not to touch anything inappropriate?" She said but she was smiling while his thumb brush gently at the corners of her mouth before feeling the fullness of her lips which remain smiling at his exploration.

"Hn," was his only reply while Sakura's lips tingled as Itachi seems not to have an inkling of what he was doing because he had suddenly lifted her chin up with his thumb and index finger while his other thumb was playing havoc over her entire body by repeatedly rubbing her lower lip.

Sakura became light headed while she unconsciously drew closer to him. She didn't know if it was intentional or not because the next she recalled herself doing was moving her lips against Itachi's thumb, bestowing him an unintended kiss before blowing against him thumb and then nipping it gently with her teeth.

All movement cease in front of her while Sakura's tongue darted out to lick his thumb while she watched in fascination and curiosity the different expression that fleeted across Itachi's face. She recognize surprise, interest and an emotion that became too hard for her to discern as Itachi's lashes were lowered while his face turn hard like a carved marble.

She didn't actually know what she was doing but what she saw in Itachi's face betrayed an emotion that Sakura would soon realized as desire.

It was dark,.....forbidden...and yet tempting....

**_To be continued……._**

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